|
"Atoms" or "elements"- it is in either case an absurdity, an
impossibility, to hand over the universe and its contents to
material entities, and out of the disorderly swirl thus
occasioned to call order, reasoning, and the governing soul into
being; but the atomic origin is, if we may use the phrase, the
most impossible.
A good deal of truth has resulted from the discussion of this
subject; but, even to admit such principles does not compel us to
admit universal compulsion or any kind of "fate."
Suppose the atoms to exist:
These atoms are to move, one downwards- admitting a down and an
up- another slant-wise, all at haphazard, in a confused conflict.
Nothing here is orderly; order has not come into being, though
the outcome, this Universe, when it achieves existence, is all
order; and thus prediction and divination are utterly impossible,
whether by the laws of the science- what science can operate
where there is no order?- or by divine possession and
inspiration, which no less require that the future be something
regulated.
Material entities exposed to all this onslaught may very well be
under compulsion to yield to whatsoever the atoms may bring: but
would anyone pretend that the acts and states of a soul or mind
could be explained by any atomic movements? How can we imagine
that the onslaught of an atom, striking downwards or dashing in
from any direction, could force the soul to definite and
necessary reasonings or impulses or into any reasonings, impulses
or thoughts at all, necessary or otherwise? And what of the
soul's resistance to bodily states? What movement of atoms could
compel one man to be a geometrician, set another studying
arithmetic or astronomy, lead a third to the philosophic life? In
a word, if we must go, like soulless bodies, wherever bodies push
and drive us, there is an end to our personal act and to our very
existence as living beings.
The School that erects other material forces into universal
causes is met by the same reasoning: we say that while these can
warm us and chill us, and destroy weaker forms of existence, they
can be causes of nothing that is done in the sphere of mind or
soul: all this must be traceable to quite another kind of
Principle.
|
|